Carte-de-visite head and shoulders photograph of Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau, in a vignette format. She is shown in three quarter view, facing towards the left of the image with her head turned towards the right of the image. Her hair is elaborately arranged in a chignon and decorated with flowers. She is wearing a pale coloured dress, adorned with a ribbon and insignia on her left sleeve. She is wearing a string of pearls and a brooch, pinned on the front of her dress.

She was the third child of Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt and Frederica Wilhelmina of Prussia. In 1854 she married her second cousin Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia. The couple had three daughters and a son.

She possessed a remarkable talent for music and painting and was almost completely deaf.